Dementia caregiver referral trial finds no self-efficacy benefit, fewer ED visits

A single-blind randomized trial compared usual care with usual care plus CommunityRx-Dementia, a low-intensity resource referral intervention for dementia caregivers. The intervention provided education, personalized lists of nearby resources, and navigation support. Participants were English-speaking caregivers willing to receive text messages who lived within 62 ZIP codes surrounding an urban academic medical center. The prespecified main analysis included 133 caregivers with at least one baseline health-related social risk; another 210 without such risks were analyzed post hoc.

At 12 months, the primary outcome, caregiver self-efficacy, was 3.5 in both groups on a 1–5 scale (odds ratio 0.80, 95% CI 0.30–2.09). Among caregivers with social risks, emergency department utilization was lower with the intervention: 0.3 versus 0.7 (incidence rate ratio 0.41, 95% CI 0.19–0.90). Loneliness, needing help, and hospitalization outcomes did not differ significantly. In the post hoc subgroup without social risks, the intervention was associated with lower odds of needing help (odds ratio 0.31, 95% CI 0.12–0.83), but not differences in the other reported outcomes.

The findings suggest resource referral may reduce emergency care use among caregivers with social risks, despite no improvement in self-efficacy. Interpretation should account for the small main-analysis population, self-reported healthcare utilization, multiple outcomes, and geographically and linguistically restricted recruitment. Full text was unavailable for this assessment.